June Hatch-A-Long

[FortCluck]

Eh, who cares. Needed ALL the room for my geese.
View attachment 2165060View attachment 2165061

Love them!

 

[GhislaineDel]

Guineas can't very well range for ticks when fox mamas want to feed kits. *sigh* I chased off the fox but I seem to be down a guinea. The remaining 6 guineas will be confined to coop and run for a while now.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Not nearly as cute as baby geese...but you can just start to make out the eyes.

 

[jolenesdad]

Not nearly as cute as baby geese...but you can just start to make out the eyes. View attachment 2165165

I’m already attached to those eyes.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

LOL. Its probably over 100 (at least) pages from last year's June hatch-a-long. Im going to summarize. And this is not a fish story.

@Mixed flock enthusiast had a gigantic community guinea nest they were brooding. Disaster struck, eggs smashed, babies eaten, everything. They rescued dozens of the eggs and got into an incubator. Grimey, covered in death and foul eggs. Then, that incubator had an ongoing hatch in it for who knows how long.

They literally had to monitor each egg, and, as it started to hatch, remove it from the incubator, assist the hatch, literally disinfect the chick, and get it another incubator to dry.

Not only that, but, the eggs were laid whenever the heck the guineas wanted to. So it went on for days and days and days and days. It was EPIC. I don't think they lost hardly anything, it was dedication like you can't imagine.

And, I cannot imagine the smell they dealt with. I just can't. Wow.

Last June was fun. @CluckNDoodle

Yeah, lots of fun with that hatch, ha ha. Some of these current guineas are the babies from that hatch! Definitely doing all we can now to avoid giant community nests. Viceroy, the broody guinea, hates me now for forcing her off her nest everyday to collect eggs. I really hope that she gets the mothering thing!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I need to find the reference I saw to a study that somehow tracked the number of ticks eaten by a guinea versus the number eaten by a chicken. The difference was minor enough to make me decide to switch to chickens!

I’ve not seen much study about that, but I’ve seen some American game people state that their game birds can eat ticks as well as guineas. The game fowl probably stay alive well, but our main problem with having our chickens control ticks is that predators quickly pick off our chickens; the guineas are susceptible too but far better at staying alive. If I was going to explore another tick control option besides guineas, it would be the game fowl.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Guineas can't very well range for ticks when fox mamas want to feed kits. *sigh* I chased off the fox but I seem to be down a guinea. The remaining 6 guineas will be confined to coop and run for a while now.

Yeah, we have 15 guineas confined to their run right now after a bobcat killed one, 20 feet away from me on our back lawn! We are renting a brush cutter this weekend and clearing what brush we can before letting them back out again. It’s really hard for the guineas to eat ticks when they are confined to their run!

 

[GhislaineDel]

Yeah, we have 15 guineas confined to their run right now after a bobcat killed one, 20 feet away from me on our back lawn! We are renting a brush cutter this weekend and clearing what brush we can before letting them back out again. It’s really hard for the guineas to eat ticks when they are confined to their run!

Dang Bobcats! I took a picture of one just a few feet away from our duck house. Between foxes, bobcats, weasels, hawks, owls, and coyotes, we have learned how to build very secure coops and runs!

 

[kelseyk]

It's my first time incubating eggs. Today is day 14, and they all have nice big veins, and pretty much look like what the internet says they should by today. So can I assume we're good to go for hatch day, or should I still candle again at day 18?

I have hatching, 2 standard polish, 8 bantam cochins, 1 standard olive egger, and two silkies.

I would go ahead and candle again at day 18 just to look for any late quitters.

 

[jolenesdad]

Yeah, we have 15 guineas confined to their run right now after a bobcat killed one, 20 feet away from me on our back lawn! We are renting a brush cutter this weekend and clearing what brush we can before letting them back out again. It’s really hard for the guineas to eat ticks when they are confined to their run!

Is this the same bobcat that’s been terrorizing for a while?!?